Tuesday, April 5, 2011

This is super healthy and a great make-ahead dinner!! I prepped it in the afternoon while my kids were sleeping and baked it right before dinner time. It was a success!

1/3 cup quinoa

2/3 cup water

4 bell peppers

1 1/2 lbs ground turkey

1 small onion, diced

3 carrots, diced

1 celery stick, diced

1 tsp dried oregano

1 fresh thyme sprig, or 1/2 tsp dried

1 garlic clove, minced

3 tbsp tomato paste

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup water

1 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese

Bring quinoa and water to a boil in a small saucepan. Cover, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and leave on burner, covered, for another 5 minutes. Then you can set it aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 350 and spray 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking oil.

Bring a large saucepan of water to boil. Cut peppers in half lengthwise, removing stems, seeds and membranes. Place them in the boiling water for 2-3 minutes, until they are tender-crisp. Remove and let drain on a kitchen towel.

In a large saute pan, add 1 tbsp olive oil or safflower oil and heat to medium-high heat. Add turkey and onions. Saute until turkey has almost lost all of its pink and onion is tender. Add garlic, carrots, and celery and cook another couple of minutes. Stir in quinoa, tomato paste, parmesan cheese and water. Mix well.

Place peppers in baking dish and then spoon the filling into the pepper halves. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the peppers and bake for 15-20 minutes until they are hot.

Monday, April 4, 2011

If you haven't bought chickpea flour yet I just found another reason why you need to go find it!! I made these veggie fritters tonight for dinner and they were delicious! The chickpea flour is used to bind the veggies together and I was amazed at how they formed and flipped so easily! Today was beautiful outside so I knew my kids would want to go to the park for the afternoon which meant I had to plan ahead. I threw the ingredients (minus the lemon juice and water) in a bowl and put it in the fridge. Once we got home from the park I put the liquids in, mixed it together and started cooking!

Place onion, shallot, greens, turmeric, fennel seed, chickpea flour, and salt in a large bowl. Mix all ingredients together with your hands. After everything is well integrated, add lemon juice. Also add 1/2 cup of water into bowl. Stir with spatula Keep adding water and stirring until the mixture is not longer dry and turns into a damp dough. I used only about 3/4 cup of water for my fritters.

Put enough oil to generously coat the bottom of a medium to large frying pan. Heat oil over medium/high heat until oil is hot, but not smoking. To make fritters, scoop four or five tablespoons of batter (each scoop separated by at least an inch) into the hot oil. Cook until undersides are golden. Using a slotted spoon, flip fritters and cook other sides until golden all over.

Place cooked fritters onto paper towels to soak up excess oil. Keep cooking batches of fritters until you run out of dough.

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About Me and My Blog

With three kids, cooking dinner can be a challenge.... but it doesn't have to be! With a little planning, creativity and passion to feed your family healthy, wholesome meals... it can be done! This blog will have great dinner ideas for the entire family (yes your kids can and will eat fish if that is their only option) in addition to many other wonderful recipes that I come across.. so I invite you check back daily to see what delicious dish I have come up with!